Rights:This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 543 Howard Street, 5th Floor, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA.

Abstract:

The "pages" of rock strata that together form the geologic history book of Marion County are written in a foreign language of fossils, rock fragments, and mineral grains. We are able to translate the messages from these accumulations of extinct organisms and lifeless mineral matters through the knowledge gained from efforts of many generations of geologists. The meaning of the story of earth history that arises from the work of thousands of geologist translators lies in the connections man finds between his life and the
world around him.